Sports Board Punjab organizes a seminar to discuss Punjab Youth Festival 2014

Lahore: Sports Board Punjab (SBP), on Saturday, organized a seminar to discuss Punjab Youth Festival 2014 and gather suggestions regarding the major sporting events of 2015 at National Hockey Stadium on Saturday.

Punjab Minster for Sports and Education Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan was the chief guest of the seminar. The seminar was participated by senior journalists, leading anchors and reporters of the city including Arshad Ansari, Rehmat Ali Razi, PJ Mir, Najam Wali Khan, Salman Ghani, Jawad Faizi, Ahmed Waleed, Dilawar Ch, Sarfraz Ahmed, Sohail Butt, Asad Kharl, Amin Hafeez, Shaukat Ali, M Yaqoob, Qayyum Zahid etc. All the senior journalists spoke on this occasion and gave valuable suggestions for the holding of future sports events in a befitting manner.

In the beginning, the participants of seminar were shown a documentary containing major characteristics of Punjab Youth Festival 2014. DG SBP Usman Anwar also threw light on the achievements and sporting activities of Sports Board Punjab through a detailed briefing.

Rana Mashhood, speaking to senior journalists, claimed that the PYF 2014, with the participation of over 40 lakh, has been acknowledged as the largest youth festival of the world. “The patronization of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz has played key role in this great achievement. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, through his Envoy on Youth Ahmad Al Hindawi, has also appreciated the efforts and youth policy of Punjab government,” he added.

He said that SBP was the only institution of the province which was awarded International Standard Organisation (ISO) merit certificate for its transparency in its sports programmes. “International media channels and magazines like BBC, MSN and News Week also recognized the dozens of Guinness World records established in Punjab Youth Festival events”.

In his address, DG SBP Usman Anwar informed the participants that Pakistan has great amount of talent in every field but our people did not have a suitable platform to express their potential. “SBP through Punjab Youth Festival provided them with an appropriate platform and fortunately our masses grabbed this opportunity with both hands and proved their mettle quite successfully,” he elaborated.

He said that PYF was not only for sports persons or athletes. “People from every walk of life took active part in this grand activity. Over 300 sports events were organized during PYF 2014. Several traditional sports such as ox race, donkey cart race, mud wrestling ets were revived during the grand PYF event. Sports events were also staged at jails, Old Homes and Fountain House which shows that PYF was not mere an event but a mission for the youth and growth of sports. PYF contests were also held in engineering, agriculture, IT and film theatre fields. Healthy baby contests were also organized among 2-year-old kids,” he continued.

Highlighting the role of SBP, DG SBP said that Pakistan teams overwhelmed India in the Pak-India Punjab Games also held under the banner of PYF. Pakistan captured 22 gold medals while India had to content with only five medals. “As many as 19 countries including England, India, Nepal, Qatar, Afghanistan, America etc participated in the Punjab International Sports Festival (PISF). Such a large participation of foreign teams in PISF proved that Pakistan is home of peaceful and sports lover people,” he described.

Usman Anwar also acknowledged the useful suggestions of honorable guests and vowed to hold future events in the light of these invaluable proposals.

Arshad Ansari, President Lahore Press Club, in his address said that Sports Board Punjab (SBP), under the leadership of DG SBP Usman Anwar, has been doing excellent job for the promotion and growth of sports and it should continue its mission without any interruption. All the participants also unanimously supported the name of Punjab Youth Festival saying that the changing of name could harm the cause of youth festival.